US remittances to traditional receivers such as Mexico and the other Central American states are a well-followed story, so being the contrarian knucklehead that I am I decided to go have a look at the other main source of LatAm remittances, i.e. Spain. The picture that’s developing is not a pretty one, sad to say.
Here we go with a few charts. First this one that shows remittances from Spain to all other countries up to 2q08 and is taken from the website remesas.org.

If we look at the number of people from countries this side of the pond working in Spain, we can get some ideas. Here are some charts showing the number of legal workers employed in Spain since January 2006 on a monthly basis. It’s worth emphasizing that these charts don’t include the illegal workers over there, but all the same certainly give a good representation of the recent demographic trends.
Here is a chart that shows the five main LatAm countries of source for legal workers in Spain, namely Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina (FYI, next in line is Brazil with around 25,000 resident workers).


Second biggest source is Colombia:

Third is Peru:
Again the summer peak, and again the September and October figures are not forming the same rounded top of 2006 and 2007…the drop is much sharper.
Then it’s Bolivia.

Finally here’s Argentina.

This final chart shows the total number of non-European Union legal workers in Spain (includes other countries such as China, Morocco etc).

These charts seem to indicate that LatAm is more exposed than ever to a downturn in Spain’s economy in a very direct way, and that statement concerning my example nation of Spain is just as true for the other industrialized countries that are sources of remittances, such as the USA. The effect of an employment slump in any country is always felt first by the immigrant workers…it’s just the way it is, Mr. Hornsby.